Chandrapur, Apr 24 (PTI) Five white-rumped vultures were released in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district on Thursday as part of the ambitious ‘Jatayu Conservation Project’, a senior forest department official said.

These vultures, comprising three males and two females, were transported from the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre (VCBC) in Haryana to the pre-release aviary at Botezari in Kolsa Range here for the process, TATR Core Zone deputy director Anand Reddy said.

“This is the second batch that was released as part of the project being implemented jointly by Maharashtra Forest Department and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). They are in good health. Their behaviour and movement shall be closely monitored as part of the rewilding process. The first batch 10 vultures was released last year. However, only two of the first batch have survived,” Reddy informed.

There is no white-rumped vulture in the wild in TATR and the project is an ambitious move to reintroduce and re-establish this critically endangered species in a landscape from which the vulture population has completely vanished, he added.

“The project is being carried out under the guidance of PCCF (Wildlife) Srinivasa Rao, BNHS Chairman Pravinsingh Pardeshi and BNHS Director Kishor Rithe. TATR Field Director Dr Prabhu Nath Shukla is supervising it. Dr Shravan Singh, Dr Kazveen Umrigar, Hemant Bajpai, Mayank Barde, Manan Mahadev, Rundan Katkar, RFO Kolsa and his team ensured smooth transportation of vultures from Haryana,” he said. PTI COR BNM